BostonDirtDogs.com

BostonDirtDogs.com is a website started in 2001, providing an independent reaction to Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox

In and Off Season Activity

BostonDirtDogs (often shortened as BDD) provides an often humorous look at the Boston Red Sox and their day-to-day successes and failures, with bold headlines praising and criticizing the team when applicable. BDD also provides links to the local news outlets' sports sections, statistics on former Red Sox players ("keeping up with old friends"), and other web sites affiliated with BDD.

During the season, this primarily means that most articles are reactions to the Sox's latest games, providing commentary with the occasional article. Usually, the site ramps up coverage before key series, such as those against the Red Sox's heated rivals, the New York Yankees, as well as links to online articles.

The site's main focus during offseason activities is focusing on the Sox's offseason acquisitions, serving as a rumor clearinghouse along with occasional commentary and criticism of the team's moves and/or lack thereof.

Notable History and Controversy

In the 2003-04 offseason, BDD was the first to report that the Sox had struck a deal with then Texas Rangers star, Alex Rodriguez, which was the final stumbling block in a complicated deal that would see Rodriguez traded to the Sox for Red Sox star outfielder Manny Ramírez.

That was true, but only to a point. The deal was later nixed, due to the MLBPA rejecting the deal, because Rodriguez would take a pay cut in the deal. The deal collapsed when the two teams and Rodriguez could not come to an agreement that would satisfy the MLBPA. BDD's nearly obsessive coverage of the trade talks and insistence that Rodriguez would be better than the Red Sox's then-shortstop, Nomar Garciaparra, was a part of the site's ongoing criticism of the Sox veteran.

The site received the cold shoulder from the media, after also being the first to correctly report later that year during spring training that Garciaparra's injury was a torn Achilles sheath, a far cry from the minor injury the team had reported. The criticism was that the site's maintainer, Steve Silva was not a journalist and didn't get his information in a traditional way. BDD (and therefore, Silva) also did minimal fact-checking, sometimes printing rumors of suspicious quality.

An example was when Silva received by email a report that Garciaparra had told a fan at an autograph signing, that he did not want a World Series ring from the Sox when they won the 2004 World Series after his acromnious departure mid-season. Silva took the ball and ran with it, running a column entitled Breaking News: Sulking Shortstop Does Not Want Sox Series Ring, and also was interviewed by various local newspapers and television stations. However, the rumor was later proven to be a fraud and a hoax, and Silva was forced to retract the accusations. [http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/archives/002706.php Boston Sports Media reports about the hoax]

Corporate Ties

In 2004, Boston Dirt Dogs was acquired by the Boston Globe, and is now a feature on the Globe's official website, boston.com. Silva became a full time employee of the Globe, and continues to maintain the site. The Globe's corporate parent, the New York Times is the second largest shareholder in the Red Sox, behind the club's principal owner, John W. Henry. This raised fears that BDD's editorial independence would be put at risk, but there has been no signs that BDD has been forced to edit articles or change any of his columns. Boston.com puts a disclaimer on the site's main page, saying that BDD is a feature of Boston.com, but is not produced by the Globe's sports department

Other Contributors

In addition to the headlines and links, BDD provides original content from:

• Kevin Hench of [http://www.foxsports.com] foxsports.com ("Hench's Hardball");
• Gary Jacobs ("Farm Report," a look at the Sox' minor-league franchises); and
• Original artwork by cartoonist Frank Galasso.

External links

* [http://www.BostonDirtDogs.com BostonDirtDogs.com]